Virtual drum sets are now a reality as YouTuber plays Pokémon theme in VR

Why buy a drum set when you can use an HTC Vive and create your own perfect virtual setup?

Well, that’s exactly what YouTuber Emre Tanirgan did when he covered the theme song to Pokémon down to a T.

Tanirgan is currently developing a VR application that will allow users to create their own virtual drum set and play it on Vive. Named Paradiddle, it’s still in the very early stages. The video shows low-texture models in place of hi-hats, snares, and toms. Users can move around various pieces of the drum set using Vive’s motion controllers, and then play on them.

Digital Trends reached out to Tanirgan to get some insight on Paradiddle.

“My main two goals with it are creative expression in VR, coupled with the ability to get better at a real life skill through VR” said Tanirgan. Surprisingly, he was able to add dynamic sounds, meaning how hard he hits the snare or toms affects the sound. These variances in attack have not been added to the cymbals, however. “It will have more percussion instruments, and I have a system in place now that let’s me scale this up to more drums pretty easily” said Tanirgan. “It will also leverage more of the freedoms that VR gives you, such as being able to easily record and share play sessions.”

There are also some grandiose plans for Paradiddle. “What I want to focus on after some of these core features is to make it a social experience as well, so ideally you’d be able to jump into a drum circle with people all around the world if you wanted to” said Tanirgan.

This isn’t the first time someone has tried to make a virtual drum set. There are a few “air drum sticks” out on the market, but because those solutions only use accelerometers and not Vive’s motion detectors, accuracy can be questionable. Nintendo once infamously tried to implement the playing of virtual instruments with the Wii motion controls. That indecent, however, has put Nintendo forever in the E3 vault of embarrassments. Even now, GIFs of Ravi Drums bashing away and virtual cymbals still pops up on gaming message boards.

As for a release date, it’s “not set yet, but I’m thinking of releasing an early access version on Steam within the next month or two. It’ll be out on the Vive and Rift (with Touch), and I’ll think about PSVR once I get to that point” said Tanirgan. A price has not yet been set either, but Tanirgan plans to make the app “pretty cheap” so that anyone can jump in and start playing.